


winter's thorns

by charleybradburies



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Announcements, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, F/F, Family, Family Feels, Family Secrets, Femslash, House Stark, House Tyrell, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Margaery Tyrell Lives, POV Margaery Tyrell, Season/Series 07, Secret Identity, Secrets, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Survival, Survivor Guilt, Winter, Winterfell, future brandrick and gendrya
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-19 17:29:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19361422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charleybradburies/pseuds/charleybradburies
Summary: In a world where Margaery escaped to Winterfell, she faces a Northern winter - and what's come with it.





	winter's thorns

**Author's Note:**

> ~~Margaery Lives Clown Club, anyone? Lol.~~ Hope you enjoy! Please kudos and comment if you do. More to come.

For weeks after her arrival in the dead of night - the hour of the wolf, a fitting greeting to House Stark - Margaery seldom takes leave of the lady's chambers. It's in part a way to stay hidden, and a better part an attempt to warm herself. 

What's left of her beauty is hidden beneath furs upon furs, and yet not the constant fire nor Sansa's direwolf protector banish the chill from her southron bones. Her lady's handmade dresses and cloaks help, somewhat, but even in the warmth of the rebuilt glass gardens - her one true duty in this unfamiliar home - the heavy fabrics aren't quite enough. Still, she swallows complaints to any but Sansa. Whispers enough were spoken of the time they spent alone; there was no need for any more of the Margaery beneath Marya to be known, let alone outside the stone walls of the once-queen's new home. 

Lady Brienne and her squire are the only others among Sansa's service who know their fellow relocated southerner by birth name, Sansa's siblings the only others, but Margaery nearly fails at her secrecy on a few occasions, such as when Bran shares, as gently as he is able, the news of her grandmother's demise. Sansa sets her own hand upon Margaery's lap next to her, knowing without looking that tears come to her lover's eyes, and though Marg forces a deep enough breath to draw them back, she can't help thinking that Arya's soul-seeing gaze nearly names her in front of the hall. Bran does her worse, then, to follow his sister's look as he emphasizes that Olenna went without pain. 

Sansa twines their hands together, wisely ignoring him but for a sigh, asking instead about the political matters as he can see them, questions Margaery can barely hear. She can't truly regret not going home after her escape, and yet now she so nearly does. Her grandmother did not even know of her survival, had no idea of the corner of Winterfell's glass gardens dedicated to Highgarden in Loras' honor...

Sansa dismisses the court early, asking them to pray and to mind their families, and then ever-so-slightly reprimands her brother. 

_Not in public,_ she orders, and he says the time shall come. Arya rolls her eyes and quietly pulls Brienne away for training, giving Marg a nod that could have been a curtsy if she'd deepened it, a gesture of kinship on family matters. Margaery smiles her gratitude, and then redirects her attention to the fire behind her as tears come to her again.


End file.
